


Best Way to Begin the Day

by ladyknight27



Series: and with your spirit [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 16:49:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5833150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyknight27/pseuds/ladyknight27
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jess hates mornings, but begins to find them more tolerable when Rey starts joining her for breakfast.  Feelings ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jess hates mornings. They’re all right once she’s gotten used to being awake, but the process of dragging herself out of her warm bed and gradually becoming a functioning member of society is torture. She’s not outright mean in the morning, but she is emphatically uninterested in conversation before she can consume at least two mugs of caf and a plate of whatever protein-based breakfast food she can find. She still eats with the other pilots, but they mostly leave her alone while she adjusts to the day.

This morning, she’s up earlier than usual, due to a long list of X-wing repairs that she has to finish before she can run patrols again. The base has mechanics who could do it for her, but she’s not the only pilot who gets a little touchy about making sure her fighter is maintained just so.

Although the mess isn’t empty, there’s enough space for her to sit alone and enjoy the unusual peace of eating before most of the base is up. Suddenly, color appears in the sliver of her vision that isn’t focused on her caf, and she looks up to see a girl about her age setting down a plate and mug of her own. The girl nods at her and turns her full attention to her food. 

Slowly, Jess realizes that this must be Rey, the hero of Starkiller Base. She hadn’t met Rey before the other girl left to find Luke Skywalker, but she’d heard a lot about her from BB-8 and from Finn, whom Poe had immediately integrated into their circle of friends once he was released from medical. She’s not sure how prone Finn is to exaggeration, but she knows BB-8 is trustworthy, and they both say that Rey taught herself to fly from an old simulator that she’d rebuilt. Add that to the part where she’s training to become a Jedi with Jess’ childhood hero, and Jess has been very excited to meet her. The Millennium Falcon had landed the day before, but she’d been flying a mission through an (apparently unfriendly) system at the time and hadn’t gotten to see their arrival. Finn and BB-8 had told her about it, but failed to inform her that Rey is incredibly cute. 

_This is just great,_ Jess thinks as she catches herself sneaking glimpses of the wisps of hair that fall in front of Rey’s ears. When Rey stands a half-hour later, nods a farewell, and disappears as silently as she arrived, Jess starts thinking about how painful it would be to change her daily routine a little.

At the end of the day, Jess always feels chattier, and enjoys the occasionally ridiculous conversation at the pilots’ table. Poe sets his tray down next to Jess, then hops up to meet Finn and Rey, who are standing just off to the side. Jess hears him plead, “No no, BB-8 adopted you, so now you’re an honorary pilot - you have to sit with us!” 

Poe steers them towards seats on the other side of the table, and for the second time that day, Jess finds herself face-to-face with Rey. Finn is a regular at their table, since he spends as much time as he can with Poe, but Rey’s presence gets some attention and Poe introduces the pilots to her quickly. When he reaches Jess, Rey grins widely at her and says, “Nice to see you again!” Her voice is cheerful, and she has an accent that Jess can’t place but really, really likes. 

Jess thinks she might be blushing. Poe, who knows exactly how gay she is, raises an eyebrow at her; she resolves to put something gross in his flight helmet later. 

“Thank you for letting me join you this morning,” Rey says. Jess ignores Poe’s smirk. “I was so used to being mostly alone on Jakku that it was startling to see that many people, and you were sitting alone.” 

Jess replies, “It was no problem! I don’t mind quiet company that early in the morning - I’m just glad I didn’t scare you off by refusing to talk. I’m not really awake until at least 0830.” 

Rey laughs, “Master Luke insists that I begin mediating every morning at 0700. He claims that ‘a padawan should awaken to the Force while life awakens to the day.’”

Jess makes a face at her. “That sounds… fake.” 

“Oh, he’s definitely messing with me,” Rey replies. “But I don’t mind so much.”

“The mess is usually a lot more like it is now if you go to breakfast any later,” Jess agrees. Damn it, she’s going to be changing her morning routine. 

Jess starts making it to the mess by 0630, and she and Rey develop a routine of a silent but companionable start to the morning. Her absence from the usual pilots’ breakfast is immediately noticed, and the heckling begins within days. 

After they take off to run flight drills, Poe keys his comm and starts in on her with an infuriating drawl of “Sooooo, Jess, how come you don’t eat breakfast with us anymore?” 

“What’s so important that you’re actually waking up early?” Iolo cuts in.

Jess, feeling oddly defensive, snaps, “I decided I needed time to drink a full liter of caf before I have to deal with you idiots.” Over their cackling, she adds, “And Iolo – you know how there was no bantha sausage this morning? That’s because I ate it all.” His affronted gasp takes the attention off her, and improves her mood immensely. 

\---

Rey usually sits with the pilots at dinner, and Jess thinks they’re becoming friends, which is nice. However, it takes several weeks before Jess breaks their usual morning silence. "I have a scouting mission," she blurts, too loudly. 

Rey starts at the sound of her voice, and looks up from her bowl. "I'll be gone a couple of days," Jess continues. "I wanted to let you know, because I didn't want... l won't be here in the morning tomorrow." 

Rey nods, and by this point Jess feels like an idiot, and also thinks maybe Rey just doesn't speak at all before lunch. Face flaming, she downs the rest of her caf and gets to her feet, when suddenly Rey reaches out and grabs her hand. "Fly safe," she says. "May the Force be with you."

Surely Jess isn’t imagining Rey’s wide grin when she returns several days later. 

\---

Not long after her return, Jess wakes up from a dream about Rey, and _why is this happening?_ Okay, so maybe she likes her. But Rey is training to be a Jedi, and all the old stories say that attachments are forbidden in the Jedi order. There’s no way Jess’ crush can go anywhere, so really she should just try to squash it. _Because that always works,_ she thinks darkly to herself. 

Grumpy, she moves through her morning routine on autopilot and beats Rey to the mess. Instead of starting to eat, she just slumps forward to rest her forehead on the edge of the table. She can’t keep torturing herself like this, but she doesn’t want to stop seeing Rey, either. And she absolutely does not want to say anything about her hopeless crush, because having Rey let her down gently would be even worse than trying to stifle it on her own. 

When Rey sits down a few minutes later, she has a second mug with her. She slides it across the table, and Jess finds it holds caf, doctored exactly the way she likes it. Jess sort of wants to die, a feeling she realizes she has with alarming frequency when it comes to Rey. She’s not exactly complaining, though.

Instead, she manages to keep it together enough to thank the other girl. They still aren’t chatty in the mornings, but now they sometimes talk a little. She adds, “When the biometrics in my flight suit say I’m having a heart attack, I’m going to blame you for enabling my addiction.” 

Rey grins back. “You looked like you needed it.” 

At dinner with the pilots that night, maybe her gaze wanders, and maybe it lands on Rey, who is talking engine repair with Snap and Finn at the other end of the table. When Poe catches her, she grumbles, “If you say one word, I am going to take your jacket away from Finn and feed it to a mynock.” Poe looks deeply wounded, not least because he’d spent half the morning telling her how good Finn looks in it. 

\---

A couple of weeks later, Rey drags _Luke Skywalker_ to breakfast. Startled, Jess immediately chokes on her caf and has to focus on her breathing for a long few moments until she can behave like a kriffing human. After that embarrassing beginning, the only way to go is up, and she manages to introduce herself to _Luke Kriffing Skywalker_ like an adult and not a five-year-old. Mostly. There have been far too many breakfast surprises lately for Jess’ taste. 

“I’m Jessika Pava – the pilots call me Testor sometimes – Blue Three.” 

Skywalker says, “You’re an excellent pilot, you know. Sometimes I watch your squadron fly while Rey meditates.” Rey looks smug at this, and Jess manages to keep it together long enough to swallow, not inhale, the next sip of her drink. They talk about flying over their meals, until Luke excuses himself to get a glass of water. 

Jess immediately leans halfway across the table and hisses, “Rey! What-”

Rey looks up at her, seeming – shy? – and says, “Poe said you wanted to meet him, and he mentioned that today is your birthday, and I wanted to do something for you.” 

Jess has been struck dumb. She has no idea what her face is doing – is she blushing? This is awful. She needs help.

Rey continues, “I hope you don’t mind that I brought him to breakfast. I know you’d rather be quiet in the morning, but dinner is always so busy, and I wanted it to be just for you, and…” She trails off, then adds quietly, “I like seeing you every morning. I hope this was okay.” 

This is the most uncertain Jess has ever seen Rey, the calm, the straightforward, the patient, the girl she has a huge, devastating crush on. She needs to reconnect her mouth to her brain immediately and say something. She is going to kill Poe the next time she sees him. Or possibly hug him. 

“Thank you,” Jess finally manages to say. “I’m glad you brought him to breakfast – the rest of the squadron is going to be so jealous.” She smiles at Rey, who looks relieved.

When Luke returns, the three of them spend the rest of the meal talking about piloting. Jess even musters the courage to ask him about the Battle of Yavin, and kicks Rey under the table when she rolls her eyes fondly. 

Afterwards, as soon as she’s in the air and she can go on the comms without any of the officers hearing, she yells, “POE DAMERON! You told her it’s my _birthday_?” 

She swears at Poe for a solid sixty seconds while the other pilots laugh. One of the recruits finally shuts her up by interjecting an alarmed “…what the hell?” 

“Are you really complaining, Jess?” Poe replies, laughing. “I heard you got to meet Skywalker.” 

“Next time warn me,” she whines. “I was tired and almost made an idiot of myself.”

“Happy birthday, Jess,” he sing-songs, ignoring her perfectly valid complaints.

\---

About six months after her return from Ahch-to, Rey sits down at their usual table and immediately says, “Jess, I need a favor.” She hands over a second mug of caf. This must be serious.

“Mmm?” They’re at the point now where she’s pretty sure that Rey can interpret her pre-caf noises. 

“Finn has a crush on Poe,” the other girl continues, “and I’m pretty sure Poe likes him too. And I, for one, am getting tired of hearing about it. So…” 

Jess snickers into her mug, her interest piqued. “Poe definitely likes him – you should hear what we have to put up with on boring flights. Whatever you’re planning, I’m in.” 

“You know how Finn is always stealing Poe’s shirts, and wearing his old jacket? I was thinking, what if you and I trade outfits before dinner tonight, and sit next to the two of them and mimic how sappy they are?” Rey’s wicked little grin might be Jess’ favorite sight in the world, and she’s agreeing before she realizes what she just walked into. 

Jess is screwed. She’s absolutely screwed. Rey carefully looks her up and down, and… is she blushing a little? Huh.

Rey clears her throat. “This should work – we’re about the same size. If you come find me after you land, I can wear your flight suit and you can borrow my clothes. Then I can imitate Finn, if you pretend to be Poe?”

As agreed, Jess heads to Rey’s room at the end of the day, since it’s closer to the mess. They quickly strip down and trade outfits, backs to each other. If Jess were doing this with Karé, or even one of the guys, she’d never be this conservative, but she thinks she’ll never make it through dinner if she catches a glimpse of Rey right now. 

She struggles a bit while trying to put on the arm wraps that Rey usually wears, so the other girl steps into her personal space to fix them. She smiles up into Jess’ eyes when she finishes and brushes one hand over her now bare shoulder. “Not bad,” Rey says, and Jess gulps. 

By luck, Jess and Rey manage to arrive at the mess just after Poe and Finn take seats across from each other at the middle of the pilots’ table. The setup is perfect, so Rey moves towards the seat next to Finn, and Jess loudly exclaims, in tones of utmost sincerity, “Here, please, let me help with your chair so you don’t strain yourself!” 

This serves to attract all attention to the two of them, as expected. Jess can hear snickers going around the table, and she can feel Poe (who had, in fact, pulled Finn’s chair out for him not thirty seconds before) glaring a hole in the side of her head. She sets her tray down, rests her chin in her hands, and sighs, “Oh, Rey, you look so good in my flight suit! You should keep it, and wear it all the time.” It’s true, Jess thinks. Rey looks surprisingly good in orange. 

Rey gives her a look so starry-eyed that Jess’s heart skips a beat, and declares in a decent approximation of Finn’s voice, “Oh, Jess, you should tell me again about how talented and daring of a pilot you are.” 

By now, everyone is watching them and laughing at the bad theatrics and the angry expression she knows Poe is wearing. Time to twist the knife. “Here, _buddy_ ,” she says, and hears Poe growl under his breath. “Try some of this, it’s delicious on bantha steak.” 

Rey catches her eyes again, and says “I love it when you call me ‘buddy.’ You’re my best friend…” She trails off, but holds Jess’ gaze for a moment that stretches longer and longer. Jess thinks maybe the laughing has peaked and they can break character, but she’s not about to look away from how beautiful Rey’s eyes are. 

The moment is finally broken by Finn, who elbows Rey in the ribs and complains, “You’re certainly not my best friend any more, after whatever that was.” Point made, they drop the act in favor of their dinners. Jess drops her eyes to her meal but only picks at her food, her mind elsewhere. She completely misses the handful of concerned looks Rey sends her. 

After dinner, they trade clothes again in Rey’s room, and Jess pretends she’s exhausted so Rey won’t try to convince her to stay. Jess needs a little space to sort out her emotions and get them back under control. She knew this would be a mistake, and she’s so afraid of damaging her friendship with Rey that she doesn’t want to take any more risks, especially not tonight. 

Poe corners Jess on her way through the corridors. “I guess I don’t need to get you back for that,” he laughs. “Seems like maybe your joke backfired a bit.” 

“It was Rey’s idea,” she mutters, trying to hide her face in the unzipped collar of her jumpsuit. It smells like Rey, and is still warm from the other girl’s neck. Shit. “You guys are insufferable. Why don’t you just ask him out already?”

“I did,” Poe smirks. “And insulting me isn’t going to distract me, I can see the look on your face right now.” Jess groans and slaps at him until he backs off and lets her key into her room. She flops face-down on the bed and is asleep almost immediately. 

The next morning, Jess plops into her seat and groans, “Rey… we made a terrible mistake.” 

Rey nods, looking more tired than usual. “Finn kept me up half the night talking about Poe and dating and ‘Oh no what do I do, he likes me, what if I want to kiss him, how does kissing work?’ I regret everything.” 

\---

 _This is the worst day ever,_ Jess thinks as she flies, paying only minimal attention to the formation that her squadron is practicing. She almost wishes something catastrophic would happen so she never has to go back to the base. Engine failure, First Order attack, maybe her hyperdrive spontaneously activating and sending her to the other side of the galaxy... One corner of her mind suggests that she's being a little dramatic, but she dismisses that thought immediately.

That morning, she'd eaten breakfast with Rey in their usual companionable silence. Her mind occupied with planning repairs for the stabilizer that she'd knocked loose the day before, she stood up to leave a little sooner than normal, and then did the worst thing possible. She leaned over Rey, pecked her on the lips, said "See you at dinner," then walked out of the mess on autopilot and was halfway to the hangar before she realized what she'd done. She'd only needed fifteen minutes for the damn stabilizer, then had spent the next 45 minutes hiding in the cockpit of her X-Wing and replaying every moment of the interaction. 

By the time the other pilots arrived in the hangar, she’d concluded that Rey was never going to speak to her again. Poe had given her a curious look when he saw her already in the cockpit, but actually obeyed when she glared at him and made a slashing hand gesture intended as a “do not ask.” 

The flight – and the day – go by far faster than Jess would like, and it feels like no time at all before they’re landing again. She actually changes out of her flight suit before dinner, and no, she is absolutely not dawdling. 

When she gets to the mess, Rey is sitting alone at a table, her face perfectly neutral as she picks at her dinner. It’s obvious that Jess is supposed to join her so they can talk in relative privacy, and her stomach clenches. Finn and Poe are whispering intently and stealing glances at Rey, but she can’t tell from their expressions whether they know what Rey is thinking. Her limited powers of espionage exhausted, Jess turns to get her food. She agonizes over what vegetable she wants, which is absolutely not a stalling method. Finally, brick red and so nervous her hands are shaking, she walks over to the table. 

Rey looks up as she approaches. "You kissed me," she says as soon as Jess sits down. 

She should have expected Rey to be as straightforward about this as she is about everything else. "Yeah," she admits. "I'm sorry.”

Rey watches her, processing the words. "Why are you sorry?" She looks serious, but not upset. 

"I should have asked you," Jess admits. "We should have talked about… this, whatever we’re doing. Or not doing. I wasn't thinking. It’s not the way I would have… approached you." Blushing again, Jess stuffs a forkful of rice into her mouth so she’ll stop babbling.

“Approached me?” Rey’s face is still unreadable. 

This is not going well at all. “I… yeah. Eating breakfast together every morning has started to feel so… domestic, and I was distracted. I sort of forgot that we aren’t dating.” This would be an excellent moment for the ceiling to collapse onto her head, Jess thinks despairingly. 

"Did you want to kiss me?"

"Kriff, yes," Jess admits. 

"Good,” Rey says, and the grin she finally gives her is blinding. “You should try it again sometime. And properly.”


	2. Epilogue

At the end of a good training flight – the new pilots have really shaped up well – Poe and Jess tend to fly circles around the other X-wings. Sometimes it turns into a stunt competition, both pilots pulling maneuvers they usually only try in flight sims. 

The tricks usually come with good-natured sniping. "Got a little close to that asteroid, Jess. Isn't Rey watching you with the Force? She's going to be maaaaaad."

“How do they have this much energy?” Karé sighs. 

“I think that’s what ‘happiness’ looks like in pilots,” Iolo grumbles back. 

Jess laughs off the heckling as they swoop towards the hangar. She thinks the other pilots have discussed whether or not to jam their comms during training flights, and she’s pretty sure the only reason they haven’t is because Snap is a fiend for gossip. 

She lands her X-wing and climbs out of the cockpit, yanking off her flight helmet and grinning when she sees Rey waiting at the bottom of the ladder.

“Hey,” the other girl murmurs, leaning in to kiss her. “Good flight?”

“Ehh,” Jess replies, kissing her again, just because she can. “There’s a weird rattle in my engine that I want to check out before I forget.” She eyes her girlfriend and adds, “Is that my wrench?” 

“Yep. That ok?” 

“Don’t lose it!” Jess teases her, already heading towards the back of her fighter. 

Poe catches Rey as she lingers, and slings an arm around her shoulders. “So, how badly did you need to borrow that wrench at the exact moment we landed?”

Jess hears Poe make an “oof” that she thinks means Rey’s elbowed him in the side. “I needed it for the Falcon! I didn’t know when you were coming back!” 

“Uh-huh,” Poe says. "Don’t you have your own tools?”

“Whatever,” she hears Rey mutter. 

“This is like the fourth day in a row you’ve been here when we landed,” he laughs. “Finn and I aren’t even that bad. You’re a Jedi - aren't you supposed to be above human attachments?" 

Jess chooses that moment to rejoin them, slapping a companionable palm against Poe’s shoulder. “Just a bit of scrap in the engine,” she tells Rey. “Poe giving you a hard time?” She lifts her hand from Poe’s back – there’s a nice handprint on his flight suit, but her palm is still covered in grease. She winks at Rey.

“Not anymore,” Rey says, snickering. 

“What’s so funny?” Poe demands. 

“Nothing!” Jess ruffles his hair with her dirty palm. “See you at dinner?” 

She and Rey make a break for the corridor as Poe checks his hair. “PAVA!” 

\---

The next morning, they walk to breakfast together from Jess’s room, which she thinks is essentially their room now. Rey smirks over the rim of her mug and says, “So Poe was giving you a hard time while you flew yesterday? Because I’m starting to think we need to get back at him for the constant teasing.”

Jess agrees whole-heartedly. “It’s not like we’re any worse than him and Finn. I thought Poe was literally going to hand-feed him cake last night at dinner.” 

After they finish eating, Rey follows her to the hangar, but grabs Jess’ hand as she heads towards her fighter and says, “Come with me for a minute?” Which is how Jess finds herself backed against the side of Poe’s X-wing, her girlfriend leaning over her with another smirk stretching across her face. Rey leans forward to kiss her, and yeah, this is turning out to be a great plan.

Dimly, Jess thinks she hears voices in the hangar, but she can’t quite bring herself to care. “Jess? Where are you, it’s time to… OH GOD.” 

Rey breaks the kiss to laugh, and Jess leans forward to rest her forehead against Rey’s collarbone as she listens to her commander splutter. She’d be more entertained if she weren’t justifiably distracted right now.

“Really, on Black One? You have your own kriffing ship, Jess, why couldn’t you have gone there instead of defiling mine?”

Rey turns around and raises an eyebrow. “Really, Dameron? We were busy.” 

Jess thinks Poe’s head is going to literally explode. She leans around to add, “It’s not like we’ve got cooties, and I don’t think I scratched the paint… much.” She grabs Rey’s hand and tugs her away as Poe lunges towards the scrape she’d invented. 

Jess loves mornings.


End file.
